Brianbirdbrain

Life birds on the Upper Texas Coast are getting harder and harder to come by.  I decided to hit some migrant traps in Brazoria County Saturday morning hoping for Black-throated Blue Warbler and some beach areas looking for Hudsonian Godwit but neither one of them paid off.  Lots of good birds that pushed my Brazoria life list well over 200 species making it my 5th 200+ county.  But still no lifers.  Decided to swing by the wildlife refuge on the way home not expecting too much by the looks of some recent reports but there was hours worth of birding to do  there.  Many new birds for the county and for the year so feeling satisfied I figured it was time to go home.  I think I said that it was time to go at least 5 times now but this time I meant it... or so I thought.  Many birds started moving in and I saw a lone blackbird on top of a small burnt bush and figured I'll take a quick look and turned out to be a Bobolink for unexpected Texas Life Bird ...

An Iceland Gull has been reported for a week or so at Bolivar Flats Shorebird Sanctuary so I thought Saturday morning would be my best chance to try for it.  I have seen a Thayer's Gull in Colorado and as of last year Thayer's and Iceland Gull got lumped into the same species so now they are all called Iceland Gull but either way I do not have this bird for Texas.  Over the past few years they have been reported at the Texas City Dike, which I chased a couple times and failed, East Beach in Galveston, which I chased a couple times and failed, and currently Bolivar Flats, which I have chased twice and came up short. These birds are usually going to be in one of these three spots that are only 2 and 5 miles apart as a gull flies but as a car drives it would take a couple of hours and a ferry ride.  So I figure it is best to pick one of the spots(indicated by the perfectly round red circles) and hope for the best. Last week I was able to find 5 life birds with relative ea...

My good birding friend Bob Friedrichs invited me at the last minute to go to Lubbock with him to find the elusive Lesser Prairie Chicken.  Many birders have struck out looking for this bird and some have almost just written it off thinking they may never see one.  Bob, however, found a way.  But first we had to drive to Lubbock and on the way we stopped off at South Llano River State Park to look for Black-capped Vireo and Cassin's Finch.   We found them both immediately with little effort for Texas Life Birds 422 and 423.   And we ran into some great birding friends while we were there then it was off to Lubbock for a few hours of sleep. The next morning we met in a parking lot in Lubbock to meet our Lesser Prairie Chicken source. In that parking lot I ran into another good birding friend Dennis Cooke who was there with another birder from the area and we all piled into our unnamed source's truck at 5:30 sharp to head out to a secret destination before d...